West Rumors: Athletics, Giants, Stanton, Dodgers, Padres

After Oakland traded relieversRyan Madson and Sean Doolittle to Washington on Sunday, Athletics executive VP of baseball operations Billy Beane indicated that the franchise is ready to change course, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle in a quote-filled piece that’s worth a full read. Beane, who noted that the A’s have “never really committed to a full rebuild,” suggested that the team will do just that as it eyes a new stadium. He also expressed frustration with the fact that the A’s have had trouble re-signing their talent and added that “we need to change that narrative by creating a good team and ultimately committing to keeping them around, so that when people buy a ticket, they’ll know that the team is going to be there for a few years.” Continued Beane: “This is my 20th year on the job. There are only so many cycles that I can go through before I get as exasperated as everybody else. Finding players has never been an issue for us. Keeping them and ultimately keeping the faith and commitment from people who follow the team, that’s got to be done by keeping them around. Again, I’ve been assured by ownership that that’s what we’re going to do as it parallels with the stadium.”

More on Oakland and a few other West Coast teams:

The A’s did get a major leaguer back in their trade with the Nationals in reliever Blake Treinen, but rebuilding means that acquiring big league-ready talent isn’t going to be a priority in upcoming deals, Beane revealed. Rather, the A’s have to “try and get the best players period,” said Beane, who preached patience. Given Treinen’s age (29), he might not be a long-term piece for the A’s, though Beane doesn’t have any interest in flipping him elsewhere right now. Two teams quickly approached the A’s about acquiring Treinen, but Beane rejected their advances.

Craig Mish of Sirius XM tweeted Saturday that the Giants have shown more interest than anyone else in Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton, leading Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area to assess whether a deal could happen. The California-born slugger’s enormous contract (he’ll collect $295MM through 2028 if he doesn’t opt out after the 2020 season) makes it highly unlikely he’ll end up in San Francisco, even if the Marlins were to eat around $95MM, observes Pavlovic. To take on that type of money – particularly for a player who has had difficulty staying healthy – would cripple the Giants’ budget for both the near term and the long haul, Pavlovic writes.

At least one team would like to acquire Dodgers outfield prospect Alex Verdugo, but “it’s really hard to imagine a plausible scenario where it makes sense for us to move him,” general manager Farhan Zaidi told Bill Plunkett of Baseball America (subscription required and recommended). Zaidi offered effusive praise of Verdugo and opined that “he’s big league ready or close to being big league ready.” Verdugo, who has slashed .344/.414/.464 across 350 plate appearances in his first taste of Triple-A action, ranks as BA’s 35th-best prospect.

“Almost all” of the Padres’ relievers have drawn trade interest, GM A.J. Preller informed AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. “The relievers have all pitched well, and scouts take note of that,” stated Preller. “Teams have definite interest. And it’s not just a back-end guy or setup guys. We have some depth, and teams have hit us on that depth.” The Padres’ highest-profile reliever is southpaw Brad Hand, whom “there’s definitely a lot of interest” in, Preller acknowledged. At the same time, “there’s a lot of interest in keeping him here as well.”Brandon Maurer, Ryan Buchter, Kirby Yates, Craig Stammen and Jose Torres are other San Diego bullpen pieces who are reportedly on teams’ radars.

Comments

Beane wants high risk, high reward younger players. The template of the A’s drafting low floor/ low ceiling college players and trading for 24 year old prospects close to the majors is gone. Expect to see very young prospects come back for Lowrie and Alonso. Gray is a different story, all depends on what kind of deal lines up with whoever bites hardest for Sonny.

Not that Beane hasn’t provided exciting times during his 20 years. Against all odds the A’s have the 9th most wins in MLB over that span and 8 postseasons appearances and 6 Division Titles. All knowledgeable A’s fans couldn’t be more excited about what is taking place. After the Oakland A’s surreal 2012-2014 run, in which they added two more Division Titles to their crowded Trophy Case (4 World Championships and 16 Division Titles since moving to Oakland in 1968, most out West during that stretch) and leading the AL in wins during that 2012-2014 three year span, Frost and Beane tore it down after that heartbreaking 2014 WC loss, and are finally and properly rebuilding for the first time since the late 1990’s. Mind you, this team hasn’t truly rebuilt like all of the other small market teams during Beane’s tenure, a remarkable feat, how consistently competitive they’ve been despite this.

2015 and 2016 marked the first time since 1998-1999 that the A’s had the luxury of drafting in the Top 8 (they had spent 1999-2014 finishing with 74 wins or more every year, only the Cards and Yanks can say the same). They have a very talented young core coming up and winning together at every level, and some already preforming well at ML level (Healy, Manaea, Pinder, Maxwell) and others about to show their talents at ML level in Matt Chapman and Franklin Barreto, and more depth in the system coupled with their first two truly blue chip draft picks AJ Puk and Austin Beck since Barry Zito and Mark Mulder in 1998 and 1999.

All of this is corresponding with new A’s President Dave Kaval set to announce the location of the long overdue new baseball stadium in the proud City of Oakland for the A’s, coupled with the haul of young prospects they are set to get for Sonny Gray and Yonder Alonso, and man, things are very exciting in Oakland. The winningest MLB franchise out West since the day they landed in Oakland is soon going to be playing by the same rules as 25 + other teams and in a brand new ball park!! Lets go!!!!

I’m not saying the Dodgers should move Vertugo for a reliever but imo it is odd to have him near untouchable. He’s very much a floor over ceiling prospect, averagish power, COF, not special speed, good bat to ball why he should be solid and useful while cheap. But for a team like the Dodgers you think they’d aim higher than that in the COF

I do somewhat agree. I can c him wanting atleast 1 young high upside guy. But the As need ppl to play now with talent. I can c a good mixture of both almost major league ready talent plus high upside young guys. The teams in need of what they have to offer have a lot of both of those types of guys

1. HBP in the Face…..doesn’t count as an injury you can blame a player for.

2. Hamate bone is a one time injury that many big bats suffer.

3. One hamstring injury suffered because he was hustling.

He should have returned to the lineup in September after #2 and #3, but the Marlins chose to not play him because they were completely out of the pennant race. Don’t punish the guy because he plays on a lousy team.

OVERPAID?
The guy is capable of hitting 40-50 HR’s and 110 RBI’s. He will change how they pitch to Belt in front of him, giving Belt more production. Players who have that kind of potential and if proven that they can Mash are getting 25 million-dollar contracts everywhere.

BAD DEFENSE?
Have you watched any of the Marlins games? If you had… you would have seen players rounding third and holding because they will not run on Stanton’s arm.

The truth is the San Francisco Giants don’t deserve a player like Stanton. The Dodgers or Cardinals have a much better chance of landing him because they have considerably more talent in their Farm systems. The Rockies should be going after Stanton….. just look at his numbers at Coors Field and you’ll see why.

Why would Loriia care what he leaves the new owners with? The buyers are obviously being stretched for the money, that’s why the Jeter group isn’t making it, and getting rid of the Stanton contract gives them a lot less liabilities on the balance sheet.

Unless Preller gets a deal for Buchter, Yates, and Torres worth giving up the long term control of each probably better to hold on to them. In the case of Yates and Buchter they are older, but they each have less than 150 innings to their resume.

Hand will be dealt either by the deadline or during the off season.

Maurer, probably best to hold onto him, see if he can have a strong 2nd half and trade him during the off season or hope he can have a strong 2nd half of 2017 and strong 1st half of 2018 and deal him during the 2018 deadline.

Perhaps you are right, but I’m still praying (as are the folks at Athletics Nation, you know, the site that started all of SB Nation) the A’s land Brinson and a few other studs for Sonny, as OF prospects is what the A’s really need to round out the impressive young core they are building. Man, Brinson would really help solve that problem, likewise Sonny would be awesome in the NL Central!!

Plus, A’s fans love the Brewers (you already got Eric Sogard and Stephen Vogt out there) and we’d be happy to watch those two plus Sonny help guide you to a Division Title and hopefully even more!!

Even if Brinson wasn’t in the package, but it included Ray or Hader (plus more young upside talent), I think A’s brass would be happy.

However, the Astros, Indians, Cubs, and Yankees have some pretty impressive packages of ML ready talent/high upside prospects they could include in a deal. I personally like the Brewers mix of potential prospects the best but that is just me.

Color me shocked if any of Brinson, Hader, Woodruff, Burnes were traded. That’s the starting CF and 3 rotation arms of the future starting in 2018 (Burnes up by mid-season most likely). Ray, Ortiz + 2 makes more sense. Even including Cordell gives the A’s an OF who can play all 3 spots and is basically MLB ready. Isn’t great at anything but solid at everything. Young OF with high upside is Harrison. 4th piece could be so many different pitchers but low level guy (maybe Griep in A+)

Brinson, Woodruff, Harrison, Yamamoto deal I’ve seen is far too lopsided toward the A’s. No way Stearns even thinks about that for one sec

But, again, we’re talking about the A’s wanting long-term prospects, not major league ready. If they want major league ready and Brinson isn’t included, most teams could probably put together a better package. Ray and Ercig are top 100 prospects in High A. And the Brewers have a ton of good power arms on that Carolina team.

And, as I’ve said throughout this thread (if you were smart enough to read), the Brewers don’t appear to want to give up major league ready prospects. So trading Ray instead of Brinson increases Milwaukee’s chances to get Gray.

Yikes! Are you for real? Picks near the top of what? These past two years marked the first time since 1998-1999 the A’s had draft picks in the Top 8 and they selected 6th overall in 2015 and 6th overall in 2016. (From 1999 to 2014 the A’s finished with 74 wins or more every year – only the Cards and the Yanks could say the same, but they play by slightly different rules).

Prior to 2015 draft, the highest the A’s had selected was 9th overall in the 1999 MLB draft (selected Barry Zito). So, despite your best efforts, the stats show that under Beane’s tenure, the A’s have “picked near the top” just twice during Beane’s tenure, 2015 and 2016 (as selecting Mark Mulder 2nd overall in 1998 cant’ be credited to Beane because he wasn’t in charge of the 1997 A’s that led to the 1998 pick).

Please study up, learn your history and meditate upon it, it will save you from false narratives.

This is why misterg always makes well thought out baseball comments near the top of message boards.Ever watched or read about a team that wasn’t your home team? You can typically find BB keeping the A’s atop the West on a shoestring budget.. Do You should probably do some homework on the going on 20 years with Oakland GM/President who turned the Red Sox down before they hired Theo years ago. Just common knowledge that he’s one of the top executives, a few misses but so has every GM.

Jd Martinez would be left field. Taylor plays 2nd if it’s a right handed starter and Center of its a Lefty. Yeah it might mess up chemistry but Taylor hits well against lefties and joc doesn’t. JD is definetly a better hitter then Taylor/forsythe/Joc.

It’s easy to see how Martinez could fit in. Taylor just transitioned back to the super utility role. Which, at least this year, protects you if like fangraphs pointed out there’s a huge regression. It would also add needed protection so teams aren’t able to just pitch around Bellinger. That’s really a perk of Taylor and a lot of these bench players. The Dodgers depth isn’t necessarily what it’s cracked up to be ,as there are DFA waiting players up and down the 40 man, with the amount of injuries sustained but the versatility has been impressive. It also allows Thompson to go down and play everyday bc playing once or twice a week is doing him no favors.

The most obvious expendable in a Martinez scenario would Thompson, but he’d probably be going down anyway the moment either of Segedin or Gutierrez come off the DL, so with Martinez someone else has to go. Taylor has proven himself to be a better OFer than he’s ever likely to be defending at SB so forcing him into more of an infield role is probably not drawing to the strengths of this team as we are now seeing it.

The team (as composed right now, prior to a Gray, et al deal) really reminds me of the 2011 team rolling into the second half. You can see it. It’s not far away.

Hey, maybe they keep playing well after all this roster turnover and actually claw their way back into the WC conversation, that would be a big victory for all these young guys getting to play. They would be starting 2018 with plenty of confidence. They will likely get picked by all the writers to lose 100 games next year, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see BB put a roster together that wins in spite of itself.

Urias is too young and we’ve already invested too much into him to give up now. That surgery is scary though for sure. Hoping for the best there. I like Alvarez but I feel he’s expendable and he can demand a nice price. I’m just thinking we have a spot for Verdugo next year depending what we down with Adrian. An OF consisting of Verdugo, Joc and Puig sounds nice

Forgot to mention Stewart, seeing him out of the pen this season has me excited about him. Would like to keep him around for a bigger pen role or maybe even starting if we make room in the rotation for him.